The day after...

Well, surgery day has come and gone for my oldest daughter and all went well. She is now the proud owner of a brand spanking new fresh off the showroom floor mechanical aortic valve. All went as planned with the surgery and the long term prognosis is excellent.

I had said here that the valve would not be replaced. On further reflection and discussion with the Doctor Ruth decided to go ahead with the mechanical valve rather than face yet another surgery at some point when the aortic valve demanded replacement. That was not really a matter of ‘if’ but of ‘when’ so she decided that there was no point in putting it off.

An interesting twist was that as we left her room after seeing her for a few minutes we ran into her pediatric cardiologist whom we had not seen in 15 years or more. Dr. Carpenter had found out that Ruth was going to have the operation there and wanted to check in on her. That’s what I call service after the sale.

Feel as if I should have some deep and insightful commentary on the whole experience but all that’s there at the moment is a deep deep sense of relief that this is now behind her. This little girl, born to be a mother, now will be able to continue doing what she does so well.

The tension level as we sat in the waiting room for those six hours it took for them to do the operation was replaced by giddiness as the pressure lifted after just a few minutes of conversation with the surgeon, who by the way looked to be about Ruth’s age.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it….